A few days ago, I felt moved to do something that I forgot real people do: write a review on Yelp.
Sometimes, without realizing it, I imagine that Yelp reviews of restaurants or YouTube tutorials on how to knit a hat just appear on the internet out of the blue. But people write them and film them and share them with the world everyday. Now I’m one of those people.
This is how it started. On one of the last weekends of summer, my friend and I tried out about ten new coffee shops in one day, and at the end of it all, we stumbled into a café in Lincoln Square called “Baker Miller.”
Being Millennials, we were drawn in by the minimal floral décor and the many varieties of avocado toast and gluten free options on the menu. Long story short, I ordered an oat and jam bar as a side dish. I asked the cashier if there were nuts in it, since I have a serious allergy, and she said no.
Two minutes later, after taking a bite, my throat started closing up, and I was popping emergency Benadryl tablets from my purse.
This isn’t the worst part.
When I walked back to the counter to ask the cashier what was actually in the oat treat, I noticed a partially hidden sign: “oat pecan bars.”
“I just want to let you know that the oat bars do have nuts in them, and I just had an allergic reaction,” I said to the cashier.
“Oh, yeah, I was just busy,” was her reply.
If the gravity of the situation wasn’t clear, I added:
“Just letting you know so that this doesn’t happen to somebody else in the future,” I said, stunned.
“Yeah, I was in my zone and busy. NEXT IN LINE!” was all she cared to say.
Although I should have been more worried about my allergic reaction, I was more concerned by the betrayal on the part of the staff. How could they be so reckless? This is 2018, and allergy awareness is commonplace.
So, I took to Yelp, pounded out a glowing one-star review, and clicked publish.
I’m not sure what I expected to happen. At first, I felt a rush, followed by a sense of guilt. What if it was too mean? What if the manager reads it and the cashier is fired, even though I didn’t use her name? Was I putting bad energy into the world? Should I write a positive review about some other place to make up for it?
Three days later, I checked back in. My review still sat there, untouched, insignificant, wreaking no foreseeable damage. Part of me wondered: is that all? Was it the same as tossing a message in a bottle into the ocean, words that probably matter to no one at all?
Luckily, this feeling didn’t last too long. I knew my review would create a ripple effect.
As a reward, Yelp kindly emails me three times a day, a forever reminder of my impulsive, one-star click.
